It Always Pays to Check Your Receipts

Today I completed our second shopping trip for August. We ended up lasting longer than two weeks from our last trip which was on 8/10. That trip cost $42.44, plus I picked up milk about a week ago which was around $3.50 so I had about $54 to spend if I wanted to stay on budget ($100 per month).

I made two stops today, one at Giant and then a quick stop at Acme to score their deal on Quaker Granola bars. Here is what I came home with today:

1lb bag Carolina Rice - $.09 after coupon

Cinnabon Cereal - $1.19 after coupon plus box has a Mail in Rebate for full price of item

2 bags Utz Chips (BOGO sale) - $1.74 for both after coupons

2 Maxwell House Coffee - $4 for both after coupon

2 boxes Wheat Thins - $3 for both after coupons

2 cans Starkist Tuna - $1 after coupon

Coffee Filters - $.99

Apple Juice - $1.69

2 gallons water - $.79 each

Land o Lakes American cheese 1lb - $3.99 after coupon

2 Oscar Mayer Bologna (BOGO sale) - $1.69 for both after coupon

1 packs Perdue breaded Chicken Cutlets - $1.50 after coupon

Perdue Boneless Chicken Breasts (BOGO sale) - $10.47 for about 5lbs after coupons

Frozen Pizza - $2.50

Orange Juice - $2.50

Dannon Light & Fit 4pk - $.89 after coupon

Coffee-mate Creamer - $.05 after coupon

6 Yoplait Yogurts - $2.74 after coupon

Mission Flour Tortillas 10ct - $1.19 after coupon

Gallon Milk - $3.39

Dozen Large Eggs - $1.39 *this price has been raised, used to be $1.09 :(

Rubbing Alcohol (bf asked for it, don't know why) - $1.09

2 loaves Holsum King Bread (BOGO sale) - $.44 for both after coupons

I was feeling very confident walking up to the check out at Giant with everything above. My total came to $52.87. This was higher than I had expected, and I was bummed because I now couldn't afford Quaker granola bars in our budget, but I paid, walked out to my car and ran down my receipt to make sure everything had rung up properly. I noticed that the Holsum bread did NOT ring up as BOGO. I went back to the customer service desk and asked why this was. The store manager checked my receipt, checked the tag on the shelf and gave me back $5.38 - apparently the store policy is "if a BOGO sale doesn't ring up correctly the customer gets both items FREE"!!! So I got two HUGE loafs of bread FREE and now had $6.50 still in the budget to play with at ACME.

At ACME I picked up

5 boxes (10ct each) Quaker Granola bars - $4.95 for all after coupons

and another pack of Perdue Breaded Chicken Cutlets - $1.50 after coupon

My total came to $6.45

Grand Total for Everything = $53.94 ($.06 under budget & we're well stocked!)

Total savings = $69.43, which is a 56% savings! Plus I'll get back $2.35 on the cereal rebate!

So remember, it's ALWAYS to your benefit to check your receipts!!!